This Sunday, July 7, our church is having an Agape Meal, the first of what may become a regular event for the first Sunday of each month.  Our tradition has been to have Communion on the first Sunday of each month, which we will continue this Sunday but with the addition of the meal and the change in location to the gym.  The idea for the agape meal developed out of the centrality of food for our almost everything we do as a church and for what we do to serve in our neighborhood.  Donuts, muffins, frozen chicken spaghetti casseroles (for the bereaved or infirmed),  BBQ, pot lucks, pizza, snow cones (yes this is a food group), food bank meals, MRI’s and more–these are all key ingredients in the life of our church.  So why not blend our traditions of eating together with Worship and Communion? That’s pretty much what the early church did with their agape meal, aka love-feast.  I was already familiar with the meal but did some research in preparation for starting our meal this Sunday and here’s what I found:

Here are some links to some agape meals at other churches/groups:

New Church Life
Peacemeal
We Are God’s Hands

Here are links to articles about agape meals and/or liturgies I found to be helpful:

A Franciscan Agape Feast ofsusaecumenicalinterfaith.org
“The Love-Feast” on theophilusinstitute.com
“Liturgy for the Love Feast” on katrinasdream.com
“The Meal of Jesus” sacredise.com
Placemat for the meal   Seeds Publishing, Katie Cook
Dinner Church: Building Bridges by Breaking Bread 

Some images I liked and will use in different ways to promote the meal as well as with our bulletin/order of service for the meal:

I’ll write about it and how it goes next week.  Please feel free to share any experience your church has had with an Agape Meal and any resource you would like to recommend.